Section A Directions: In this section, there
is a short passage with 5 questions or incomplete statements. Read the passage
carefully～ Then answer the questions or complete the statements in, the fewest
possible words. Please write your answers on Answer Sheet
2.
To fully understand the concept of the "Paperless
Office", one must understand what it conceptually was supposed to mean, as well
as what it has evolved into as its current form. Early forms of the paperless
office would have concentrated around word processing documents and the ability
to create, store and manage their existence electronically. However, you were
limited in scope as to what you could do to "manage" these documents. Most of
the management revolved around viewing and perhaps sharing it with other users
in the organization. There were no automated programs that handled workflow,
scanning, tagging and management of these documents effectively. Scanners were
(at a cost-effective price) too expensive for the average office to acquire
based on the return on investment. At the corporate level, there was no
direction as to handle workflow and to analyze where paper came from and where
it had to go internally and if there was a process in place, the tools were not
mature enough or existing to handle it. In the last few
years, technology, has finally been catching up to the needs and requirements of
the office environment. Scanners that previously cost tens of thousands of
dollars now can be acquired for hundreds～ Digital copiers/printers now
incorporate high speed scanning and OCR capability, even at the lowest levels.
The technology initiative has now been transferred to the IT and MIS departments
of corporations as well as law firms. Clearly, the tools necessary to transform
paper-full to a paperless office are now widely available. What then, is
stopping the Widespread adoption of the concept of the paperless office
Cultural issues are probably one of the largest obstructions to the
implementation of the concept of the paperless office. Plainly, people feel
comfortable doing what they know how to do best (shuffle paper around) and
modifying their habits requires a focus that makes them feel that they are, in
fact, doing things better and more efficiently. Implementing a paperless office
environment that introduces processes that are more difficult and
technologically challenging than the previous environment is doomed to fail from
the start. Keep all processes simple, introduce technology that is easy to learn
and use, and document the workflow. What does the author think about the processes of the paperless office environment in com-parison with the paper-full office environment